California was the first state to pass a law that allowed college athletes to be endorsed. Some politicians also argue that the scholarship money should be treated as income and be taxed accordingly.
The other day I came across an interesting Buzzfeed article that listed "11 Things That College Athletes Aren't Allowed to Do" because they violate NCAA rules. Most of the following examples are so far-fetched that it's hard to take them seriously. College athletes are not allowed to:
1. Sell an old textbook with your name written on it (This counts as a signature and violates NCAA protocol)
2. Pick up a side job that earns over $2000 a year.
3. Accept money from your coach to buy a candy bar. (Accepting money from your college coach in any capacity is an NCAA violation)
4. Send a paper to a tutor who then revises the grammatical errors.
5. Using prescribed ADHD medication for studying. (Sure we tell you you're here for an education, but that's only if it doesn't interfere with sports.)
6. Accept any prizes from independent competitions in a similar sport.
7. Accept $1 for a self-portrait that you made and are super proud of.
8. Sell your championship ring.
9. Collect workers' comp for being paralyzed while playing the sport that's making the school millions of dollars.
10. Accept a taco from your millionaire coach after you tell him that despite having school paid for, you come from a poor neighborhood and still don't have enough money to eat.
11. Earn as much as a penny off of the video game companies that are making millions with your likeness. (Your likeness belongs to the University)
The article concludes with the following remark: "Remember, student-athletes, your compensation is the joy received from representing your university. Our joy is in the form of enormous financial gain through your labor."
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/29/ncaa-allows-athletes-to-be-compensated-for-names-images.html
https://www.buzzfeed.com/epix/11-things-that-college-athletes-arent-allowed-to-do
It's really interesting to see that the NCAA is finally taking steps to allow athletes to make money off of their own likenesses. This new vote, however, only allows athletes to go participate in advertisements, but they still do not profit off of the money the directly generate for the NCAA. While paying players has the potential to restructure college athletics as a whole, as it would increase budgets for certain programs, potentially causing certain sports to shut down at certain schools, allowing athletes not to hold jobs does not do much in terms of keeping playing fields level.
ReplyDeleteI think to those athletes who entered really good college; they might get more school support. However, to those people who are from low income and entered some college that doesn't have that much support from university will be hard since they couldn't really make much profit from NCAA.
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